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28 April 2008

Obama on Fox: Sky falls, news at 11

Do I live in a different universe than the rest of the progressive blogosphere, or am I just old?

Let me begin by saying I hate Fox News and I don't watch it. I didn't watch the interview they did with Obama the other day. I consider them illegitimate as a news source, and I pity -- yes, there goes any chance I'll ever be elected to public office -- the people who get their news from Fox, and resent living in a nation and world where those people have the right to vote (although I would never take that right away -- if I had a political magic wand, I'd use it to show them what "fair and balanced news" really is).

The reason I'm feeling like an alien in Blogistan is that I'm really shocked at the number of its citizens who have completely and utterly lost their shit at Obama going on Fox News. They say things like this, or like this:

Obama showed weakness by caving to right-wing bullying taunts (thrilling our political foes), disrespected his base, gave Fox a propaganda victory, exposed his campaign as a bunch of liars who promised something their candidate was clearly incapable of delivering, and defended the Democratic spinelessness that gave us the most ridiculous Supreme Court in generations.

I won't pretend to guess whether this helps him in Indiana or not. It may or it may not. And since I've never put Obama on a pedestal, this doesn't knock him down. What this does demonstrate, and quite clearly so, is that Obama is quite willing to score cheap political points at the expense of his base, regardless how much it might embolden the very same people that are working to demonize him to the American people.

Now, maybe Kos is just acting all outraged so the right thinks Obama really is willing to stand up to the progressive blogs even if we get pissed off; honestly, I have no idea. I don't know him, but it smells to me like he really believes this analysis.

I don't, though. I mean, hello, Obama said he was willing to talk to Ahmadinejad; you think he wouldn't talk to Fox News?

But more to the point, I don't care. I don't care because I'm sick and tired of this bullshit paradigm where all people exist on a linear continuum from left to right, and anyone who tries to make common cause with a person with whom they traditionally don't see eye to eye is viewed as a traitor, and all attempts to create unity on the basis of our shared goals are seen as cynical moves toward the center.

Did progressives really believe that "What's the Matter with Kansas" was that it wasn't left enough? No, what's the matter with Kansas is that people were voting against their own self-interest because they had been beaten down and propagandized. Giving them a different frame for understanding how the Republican Party has been treating them isn't going to turn conservatives into liberals, folks -- I can't believe you thought it would. It's just going to let them make decisions more consistent with their self-interest, primarily their economic self-interest.

My goal isn't to force people to think like me, it's to elevate the discourse in this country so it's less full of lies and bullshit. It's to obliterate the left-to-right continuum, not by "watering down" progressive values or disenfranchising cultural conservatives but by replacing it with a different paradigm.

That's why I supported Obama in the first place, because since 2004, that's what he's been saying he wanted to do.

I'm not stupid. I do agree that Fox News has done as much, if not more, to damage honest political discourse as anyone else in the media. They are not a legitimate news source, they're a right wing propaganda machine. Like I said, I can't even turn them on. (Although to be fair, I can't watch CNN or MSNBC, either.)

But to act like millions of Americans who do not know that Fox is not legitimate aren't watching Fox is idiotic. This isn't the right wing equivalent of Socialist Worker, folks. This is one of the major sources of news for millions of citizens of the United States, and Obama is running to be their president, not just yours and mine.

Can a Democrat appear on Fox with impunity? No, they can't. It does legitimate them. It does make them think yay, we won! We bullied Barack Obama into coming on our show! We win! He loses!

But it doesn't matter what they think. What matters is what impact it really has. And I completely disagree that the impact of this interview is that the movement towards a new politics in America was harmed.

I don't know who originally said this, and Google was no help to me, but I learned it from watching Xena: Warrior Princess:

The highest form of martial arts is turning an enemy into a friend.

Maybe going on Fox isn't morally or ethically benign. It's certainly risky. But, sticking with the popular culture metaphors, I think Obama just told the right wing spin machine, "These are not the 'droids you're looking for," and they believed it.

Comments

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I'd never heard of the What's he Matter With Kansas book, but I totally get the point. It has never ceased to amaze me how people vote against their best interests. You would have thought that after 4 years of Shrub fertilizer, they'd get it. But no.

I watched the Fox interview, and I don't know that it solved anything. Then again, I don't think it hurt anthing, either. I think Obama should keep his eye on the prize, period. Time out on the distractions...in fact, didn't he and Colbert put distractions On Notice?

I do watch Fox News, especially since the election heated up. It's the only American channel I get (I can thank Murdoch and Sky News for that). When I want to know what Americans are digesting, I watch Fox.

Mostly, it seems they are watching tornado coverage, and planes-in-peril coverage.

Earlier on, they seemed to treat Obama fairly. Then the Wright thing happened, and suddenly it was 24/7 Wright nonsense.

I watched the interview with Chris Wallace, and it was brilliant. I've not got a doubt that any Fox viewer who saw that came away thinking this wasn't a scary, creepy guy after all.

So, in my opinion, he did himself a favor going on the show. Kos can jump in a lake.